Thank you, Pamela
Thank you for inviting us to appear today.
I would like to talk to you about the justice component of the family violence initiative. The initiative has several components, including legal policy, research, professional training, public awareness and project funding.
Most of our work has to do with violence against women.
The justice family violence initiative, or FVI, supports policy development aimed at strengthening legal frameworks.
The “justice” component also funds various research projects, including a revolutionary report on the economic repercussions of domestic violence in Canada. Using data from Statistics Canada, the report estimates that the cost of domestic violence rose to $7.4 billion in 2009, or $220 per person.
This study is available on the Justice Canada website.
Justice Canada also funded a report by the Aboriginal Research Institute entitled “Compendium of Promising Practices to Reduce Violence and Increase Safety of Aboriginal Women in Canada”, which provides key information on promising practices that respond to issues that communities face with respect to reducing violence and improving safety for aboriginal women and girls.
We are also working with our governmental partner and our non-governmental partners to implement projects designed to prevent and reduce family violence. For example, in 2012, we released our document entitled A Handbook for Police and Crown Prosecutors on Criminal Harassment. The offence of criminal harassment was created in 1993 to respond directly to the problem of violence against women, especially in intimate relationships.
We also co-chair with our colleagues from Status of Women Canada an interdepartmental working group on early and forced marriage and honour-based violence as well as female genital mutilation and cutting. This is a subset of family violence. Since 2009 we have held seven sector-specific workshops with police, crown prosecutors, child protection officials, shelter workers, front-line community service providers, and academics on preventing and responding to these forms of gender-based family violence.
As part of the family violence initiative, Justice Canada has produced a series of public legal, education, and information materials that help raise awareness of the legal frameworks to respond to family violence. For example, the multilingual “Abuse is Wrong in Any Language” brochure is used by newcomer services across Canada and includes information about gender equality in Canada. This was recently updated and is available in 12 languages. I have some samples here. Similarly, “Abuse is Wrong in Any Culture” is specifically addressed to Inuit women and girls who experience violence in their relationships or in their families and is available in five languages.
Finally, Justice Canada's family violence initiative supports non-governmental organizations and other levels of government through funding of more than half a million dollars annually for projects to improve the justice system's response to family violence, including violence against women. Similarly, at Status of Women Canada we hold calls for proposals. The most recent one, last year, was on forced marriage.
In conclusion the “justice” component of the family violence initiative continues to play a crucial role in supporting a range of measures designed to prevent violence against women in Canada.
We will be pleased to answer your questions.